1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to software development and, more particularly, to a hosted platform for developing and distributing mobile applications.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Mobile technology and, especially, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, are nearly ubiquitous. While it has not been unheard of in the past for multiple versions of any one software platform to be operating on different devices (e.g., where users have declined to upgrade and operating system to the most recent version), it is now commonplace—in part due to accelerating software design cycles—for several versions of a software platform to be in the marketplace at any give instant. Additionally, a given software platform may vary according to the device and/or the device manufacturer. Accordingly, applications designed for a software platform may require more than one version in order to account for different software platforms, different versions of software platforms, and/or different devices and/or form factors.
A variety of application development tools are available in the market. Generally, during application development an application developer executes a software development kit (SDK) application associated with a particular software platform (or associated with a particular version of a software platform) to create an application for the software platform. The SDK application generally operates on a computing device associated with the application developer. If the developer wishes to create applications for multiple versions of a platform, multiple platforms, or for different device types (e.g., smart phones and tablets), separate applications and development of applications are typically required. This labor is multiplied when a developer updates an application, as the update must be duplicated in each version of the application.